Alan Joyce has defended his leadership of Qantas after a year of bumper profits and surging complaints, as the group revealed it is holding an extra $100 million in unused Jetstar flight credits that hadn’t previously been disclosed.
Appearing before a Senate committee on the cost of living, the outgoing CEO claimed flight prices were trending down and that his airline had the best cancellation rate of all the major airlines while admitting others, like Rex, were far better.
He also defended his pay packet and dodged questions about whether the Qantas board had raised the airline’s falling reputation under his leadership.
“This is one of the most discredited companies, as far as the ACCC on its record of complaints, and you are saying you should be rewarded in $25 million is ok,” Labor Senator Tony Sheldon, a former union leader and long-time Joyce critic, put to the Qantas CEO.
“Do you not feel embarrassed? I would feel embarrassed if I was you.”
Joyce replied that Sheldon’s assertions were “not true”, later adding Sheldon had made a ”whole series of points incorrectly”.
One of the major revelations of Joyce’s appearance came from one of his fellow executives sitting alongside him when Jetstar CEO Steph Tully admitted the budget carrier is currently holding about $100 million in unclaimed flight credits from pandemic-related cancellations.
The Qantas Group had not previously disclosed that $100 million figure, which is not included in the $370 million in Australian Qantas flight credits it announced last week.
It also emerged the airline has around another $50 million in overseas flight credits that are yet to be used, although it has refunded or redeemed about $3 billion in credits since the outbreak of COVID-19.
Credits are due to expire at the end of the year, when, if they’re yet to be claimed or refunded, their value will be claimed by Qantas.
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None of the airline’s executives at Monday’s hearing refused to rule out that expiration deadline.
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Joyce also defended his lobbying of the federal government over Qatar Airlines’ proposal to introduce 21 extra services into Australia.
The government denied the application, saying it wouldn’t be in the national interest – despite experts claiming the extra flights would lower prices for Australians travelling overseas.
Joyce also claimed the extra Qatar flights wouldn’t have been in the national interest and denied the extra flights would have brought down prices, claiming they are falling already.
“Qatar can add capacity through flying bigger aircraft to cities like Adelaide, Darwin,” Joyce said.
“There is nothing stopping them from adding capacity to those locations.”
